Show HN: I made a calculator that works over disjoint sets of intervals

A developer has introduced an open-source calculator based on Interval Union Arithmetic, capable of handling uncertainty and solving floating-point precision issues through disjoint sets of intervals.

What is this?

This is a calculator that works over unions of intervals rather than just real numbers. It is an implementation of Interval Union Arithmetic.

An interval [a, b]

represents the set of all numbers between and including a and b. An interval union: [a, b] U [c, d]

is a disjoint set of intervals.

Interval union arithmetic is an extension of regular interval arithmetic that is vastly superior, mostly because it remains closed while supporting division by intervals containing zero:

➤ 2 / [-2, 1]
[-∞, -1] U [2, +∞]

The interesting thing about interval union arithmetic is the inclusion property, which means that if you pick any real number from every input union and compute the same expression over the reals, the result is guaranteed to be in the output union.

You can use it to represent uncertainty:

➤ 50 * (10 + [-1, 1])
[450, 550]

You can also compute more complex interval expressions, using the interval union operator U

➤ ( [5, 10] U [15, 16] ) / [10, 100]
[0.05, 1.6]

Operations can result in disjoint unions of intervals:

➤ 1 / [-2, 1]
[-∞, -0.5] U [1, +∞]
➤ tan([pi/3, 2*pi/3])
[-∞, -1.732] U [1.732, +∞]

In full precision mode, you can use it as a regular calculator, and obtain interval results that are guaranteed to contain the true value, despite floating point precision issues:

➤ 0.1 + 0.2
[0.29999999999999993, 0.3000000000000001]

Syntax

| Syntax | Examples | | |---|---|---| | Interval | [a, b] | [0.5, 0.6] | | Union | [a, b] U [c, d] | [0, 1] U [5, 6] | | Addition | A + B | ➤ [90, 100] + [-2, 2] [88, 102] | | Subtraction | A - B | ➤ [14, 16] - [8, 12] [2, 8] | | Multiplication | A * B | ➤ [-5, 10] * [2, 4] [-20, 40] | | Division | A / B | ➤ [2, 4] / [-1, 2] [-∞, -2] U [1, +∞] | | Exponent | A ^ B | ➤ [2, 3] ^ [-2, 3] [0.1111, 27] | | Functions | function(...) | ➤ log10([1, 10000]) [0, 4] | | Constants | name | ➤➤ pi [3.1415926535897927, 3.1415926535897936] |

Note: you can input intervals with the bracket syntax: [1, 2]

, or bare numbers without brackets: 3.14

. Bare numbers are intepreted as a narrow interval, i.e. [3.14, 3.14]

(with subtleties related to full precision mode). This enables bare numbers and intervals to be mixed naturally:

➤ 1.55 + [-0.002, 0.002]
[1.548, 1.552]

A surprising consequence of the calculator grammar is that intervals can be nested and you can write things like:

➤ [0, [0, 100]]
[0, 100]

This is because all numbers, including those inside an interval bracket which define a bound, are interpreted as intervals. When nesting two intervals as above, an interval used as an interval bound is the same as taking its upper bound. This design choice enables using arithmetic on interval bounds themselves:

➤ [0, cos(2*pi)]
[0, 1]

Supported Functions

| Function | Examples | | |---|---|---| | Constants | inf , ∞ ,pi , e | ➤ [-inf, 0] * [-inf, 0] [0, +∞] | | Lower bound | lo(A) | ➤ lo([1, 2]) [1, 1] | | Upper bound | hi(A) | ➤ hi([1, 2]) [2, 2] | | Hull | hull(A) | ➤ hull([1, 2] U [99, 100]) [1, 100] | | Absolute value | abs(A) | ➤ abs([-10, 5]) [0, 10] | | Square root | sqrt(A) | ➤ sqrt([9, 49]) [3, 7] | | Square Inverse | sqinv(A) | ➤ sqinv([4, 64]) [-8, -2] U [2, 8] | | Natural logarithm | log(A) | ➤ log([0, 1]) [-∞, 0] | | Logarithm base 2 | log2(A) | ➤ log2([64, 1024]) [6, 10] | | Logarithm base 10 | log10(A) | ➤ log10([0.0001, 1]) [-4, 0] | | Exponential | exp(A) | ➤ exp([-∞, 0] U [1, 2]) [0, 1] U [2.718, 7.389] | | Cosine | cos(A) | ➤ cos([pi/3, pi]) [-1, 0.5] | | Sine | sin(A) | ➤ sin([pi/6, 5*pi/6]) [0.5, 1] | | Tangent | tan(A) | ➤ tan([pi/3, 2*pi/3]) [-∞, -1.732] U [1.732, +∞] | | Arccos | acos(A) | ➤ acos([-1/2, 1/2]) [1.047, 2.094] | | Arcsin | asin(A) | ➤ asin([0, 1]) [0, 1.571] | | Arctan | atan(A) | ➤ atan([-10, 2]) [-1.471, 1.107] | | Minimum | min(A, B) | ➤ min([1, 2], [0, 6]) [0, 2] | | Maximum | max(A, B) | ➤ max([0, 10], [5, 6]) [5, 10] |

Full Precision Mode

Outward rounding is implemented over IEEE 754 double precision floats (javascript's number type), so result intervals are guaranteed to contain the true value that would be obtained by computing the same expression over the reals with infinite precision. For example, try the famous sum 0.1 + 0.2

in the calculator. Interval arithmetic computes an interval that is guaranteed to contain 0.3

, even though 0.3

is not representable as a double precision float.

When full precision mode is enabled:

Numbers input by the user are interpreted as the smallest interval that contains the IEEE 754 value closest to the input decimal representation but where neither bounds are equal to it
Output numbers are displayed with all available decimal digits (using Number.toString()

)

When full precision mode is disabled:

Numbers input by the user are interpreted as the degenerate interval (width zero) where both bounds are equal to the IEEE 754 value closest to the input decimal representation
Output numbers are displayed with a maximum of 4 decimal digits (using Number.toPrecision()

)

Bugs

While I’ve been very careful, I’m sure there are still some bugs in the calculator. Please report any issue on GitHub.

Open Source

Interval Calculator and not-so-float (the engine powering the calculator) are open-source. If you you like my open-source work, please consider sponsoring me on GitHub. Thank you ❤️